Terrifying Aircraft Hijacking

Egypt Air Flight 648 Hijacking

1985 Egypt Air Flight 648 was a Boeing 737-200 airliner, registered SU-AYH, hijacked on November 23, 1985 by the terrorist organization Abu Nidal. The subsequent raid on the aircraftby Egyptian troops resulted in dozens of deaths, making the hijacking of Flight 648 one of the deadliest such incidents in history.

On November 23, 1985, Flight 648 took off at 8.pm on its Athens-to-Cairo route. Ten minutes after takeoff three Palestinian members of Abu Nidal hijacked the aircraft. The terrorists. calling themselves the Egypt Revolution, were heavily armed with guns and grenades. The terrorist leader, Omar Rezaq, proceeded to check

all passports.

At this point, an Egyptian Security Service agent, Mustafa Kamal, aboard opened fire, killing one

terrorist before being wounded along with two flight attendants. In the exchange of fire the fuselage

was punctured, causing a rapid depressurization. The aircraft was forced to descend to 4,300 m to allow the crew and passengers to breathe.

Libya was the original destination for the hijackers, but due to negative publicity the hijacking would have had  if flown to Libya and the fact that the plane did not have enough fuel, Malta was chosen as a more suitable option. The aircraft was running dangerously low on fuel, experiencing serious pressurization problems and carrying a number of wounded passengers. However, Maltese authorities did not give permission for the aircraft to land. The Egypt Air 648 hijackers insisted, and forced the pilot, Hani Galal, to land at Luqa Airport. As a last-ditch attempt to stop the landing, the runway lights were switched off, but the pilot managed to land the damaged aircraft safely.

Without warning, around an hour and a half before the planned time of the raid, Egyptian commandos attacked the passenger doors and luggage compartment doors with explosives. Bonnici claimed that these unauthorized explosions caused the internal plastic of the plane to catch fire, causing widespread suffocation. On the other hand, the Times of Malta, quoting sources at the airport on the day, held that when the hijackers realized that they were being attacked they lobbed hand grenades into the passenger area, killing people and starting the fire aboard. Both the Egyptian explosives and the hijackers' grenades could have been responsible for the fire and deaths.

Only one hijacker -Omar Rezaq, who had survived- remained undetected by the Maltese government. The terrorist leader, who was injured during the storming of the aircraft, had removed his hood and ammunition and pretended to be an injured passenger. Egyptian commandos tracked Rezaq to St. Luke's General Hospital and, holding the doctors and medical staff at gunpoint, entered the casualty ward looking for him. He was arrested when some of the passengers in the hospital recognized him.

Rezaq faced trial in Malta, but with no anti-terror legislation, he was tried on other charges. There was widespread fear that terrorists would hijack a Maltese plane or carry out a terror attack in Malta as an act of retribution. Rezaq received a 25 year sentence, of which he served eight